From Aristotle to Thomas Aquinas : natural law, practical knowledge, and the person / Fulvio Di Blasi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Di Blasi, Fulvio, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?-1274.

Thomas.

Aristotle--Influence.

Aristotle.

Natural law.

Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.).

Physical Description:

256 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

South Bend, Indiana : St. Augustine's Press, [2021]

Summary:

"Saint Thomas Aquinas is an Aristotelian (few scholars would question that) and he is the most important author in the entire history of natural law theory. Yet, there is no natural law theory in Aristotle. Even the concept of person, which is so important in Aquinas' ethics, seems to be foreign to Aristotle's culture and thought. How can Aquinas' ethics be said Aristotelian? ... In 'From Aristotle to Thomas Aquinas: natural law, practical knowledge, and the person,' Fulvio Di Blasi argues that Aquinas' concept of natural law, his personalism, and his overall approach to moral theory are deeply rooted in the very heart of Aristotle's ethics: in his concepts of practical knowledge, proairesis (moral choice), and practical syllogism, as well as in his account of the moral agency, the ultimate end and human social nature. Di Blasi goes as far as to connect Aquinas' definition of natural law to Aristotle's concept of 'proairesis.'"-- Back cover.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. Introducing the Concepts of Good and Participation

2. Created Good as Participated

2.1. Substantial Good as Participated

2.2. Accidental Good as Participated

2.3. Secundum ordinem ad causam primam

3. Our Knowledge of the Good as Participated

3.1. "Good" and "Knowledge of the Good"

3.2. The Need for the Active Intellect

3.3. The Participation of the Active Intellect

3.4. Ens Universale and Bonum Universale

4. "Someone is Approaching"

1. An Inquiry into Physis

2. What Thought? What Appetite?

3. Why Nous?

4. Orexis and the Virtues

5. Debitum Actum et Finem

1. The Analogical Nature of Aquinas' Concept of Law

2. Law as an Act of Reason

3. Law as a Command

1. Determinism, Chance, and Freedom

1.1. Conceptual and Terminological Clarifications

1.2. Algorithms and Truth

1.3. Turing's Test

2. Discovering the Concept of Person

2.1. From Philosophy of Nature to Moral Philosophy

2.2. From Freedom to Person

2.3. The Definition of Person

1. Ultimate End: Formal Necessity and Free Content

2. Beatific Vision: Why Human Beings?

1. What Nature?

1.1. Aquinas' Realism

2. Whose Nature?

2.1. Why is the Good "Good"?

3. Contraception and the Contra-Life Argument

3.1. The Tendency against Philosophical Realism

4. Abstinence and Contraception

4.1. The Principle of Inseparability

4.2. The Argument from Abstinence

4.3. Abstinence from What?

4.4. The Starting Point

5. Value of Marriage and Acts of the Reproductive Type

5.1. Reproduction and the Definition of Marriage

5.2. Intentionality and Technical Necessity

5.3. Naturalistic Fallacy

5.4. Narrow Starting-Point and Wrong Conclusion

6. Sketching Aquinas's Approach to Nature as the Basis of Morality

1. Faith and Natural Law

1.1. Revelation and Natural Law

1.2. Natural Law and the Covenant

1.3. The Pedagogical Character of the Law and the Commandments

1.4. Natural Law, Free Obedience and Moral Conscience

1.5. Natural Law, Reason, and Revelation

1.6. Natural Law and Love of God

1.7. Natural Law as a Preamble of the Faith

1.8. The Question about Morality, Natural Law, and Ethics' Religious Aspect

2. Ethics and Natural Law

2.1. Man as the Subject of Ethics

2.2. The Importance of Virtue

2.3. Human Action as Ethical Action

2.4. Natural Law as an Approach to Ethical Theory

3. The Term "Law": Some Implications

3.1. The Two-Subject Relation and the Common Good

3.2. The First Meaning

3.3. Extrinsic Principle

3.4. Effectiveness

3.5. The Autonomy of the Law

4. "Natural"

5. (Natural) Inclination

5.1. Inclination and Freedom

6. Inclination to God

6.1. Participatio Legis Eternae in Rationali Creatura

6.2. Knowing the Eternal Law

6.3. Material Object and Formal Object of Natural Law

6.4. Dilectio Naturalis of the Human Will

6.5. Inclination to God and Moral Experience

7. Conclusion: Main Theoretical Presuppositions of Classical Natural Law Theory

1. Friendship and Justice

1.1. Friendship and Equality

1.2. The Specific Character of Friendship

1.3. Friendship and Person

2. Person, Friendship, and Political Community

2.1. Friendship's Act of Sharing

2.2. The Uniqueness of the Political Contract

2.3. Primacy of Friendship and Criteria of Justice

2.3.1. Justice of Having Recourse to a Selective Criterion

2.3.2. A Selective Criterion as Law's Internal Point of View

2.3.3. A Selective Criterion and Balancing

2.3.4. The Justice of the Relevance of Tradition

2.3.5. Multiculturalism and Political Personalism

1. Liberal Neutrality and the Priority of the Right Over the Good

2. The Modern State and the Crisis of Authority

3. From Lex Naturalis to Ius Naturale.

Notes:

Collection of essays written between 2000 and 2006.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781587312731

1587312735

OCLC:

949986505